Chaos
by Untractable Evocation
Summary: In this world, there is good, and there is evil. A fine line separates the two, invisible until it has been crossed. What happens when the Titans meet a man who stands atop that very line - someone who promises deliverance, but brings ruin upon his foes?
1. Deadly Saviour

**Author's Note:**

So, yeah. This is my first Teen Titan's fanfiction. I love the show - you can thank Cylor for getting me hooked on it - but, I really wanted to do a somewhat... darker, version of it (and yes, the show can be very dark. I have seen _Haunted_, thank you very much), which leads me to post this fanfiction, set after Season 5.

* * *

Greg Sandler was terrified. This wasn't like any of the games he had ever played. Not like Splinter Cell, or Halo, or Half Life. Having a gun pulled on you was horrible. 

Slick, black, dangerous; a metallic creature, a malevolent life form. It was alien to him, something that he had never previously encountered. Something that he had never wanted to encounter.

And now it was pointed against his forehead, a gloved finger on the trigger. One wrong movement, a single wayward quiver, and he would be blown away. At just eighteen years of age, he was a genius, one of the great minds of his generation.

If he did anything wrong, he could end up with his most treasured gift splattered all over the pavement.

"Give me all your cash, now." The gunman spoke calmly and casually, as though nothing was wrong, as though he did this every day. "Now!" He raised his voice, only slightly, but made his insistence all the more known by jamming the barrel further into Greg's temple.

"It's in my pocket, man, my front pocket. Please don't hurt me!" At any other time Greg would have been disgusted with himself, with the pitiful, whimpering wreck that he had become. But he found that he could no longer act as himself, that his defiant, anti-establishment streak had evaporated the very moment that he had seen the gun.

"You won't get hurt, as long as you don't try anything. If you do, if you so much as scratch your balls, I'm going to provide you with free ventilation." The man reached into Greg's pocket, whipped out his wallet, and then retreated a few steps as he rummaged through it. He swore and threw it into the gutter, then bought the pistol down upon his head.

The brutality of the impact flung him back against a wall. He heard a sicking crunch as his head smashed against the brick, a sharp pain as his crown was torn open. Hot, stinging tears sprung from his eyes, mingling with the blood that pissed from his nose, pure misery, fresh from the tap.

Reeling, he got woozily to his feet, only to be knocked again to his knees, this time with a punch than flattened the front of his face. His cheek caved in, watery fluids leaking down the back of his throat, burning him, choking him.

A meaty hand tore at his hair, pulled him back up to his feet. He felt his scalp rip open further, the skin actually being lifted away from his skull. It was unbearable. Then, he heard his assailant speak again, his voice still unwavering, despite the pain he was inflicting.

"Hey, buddy; I don't like it when people hold out on me. I saw you go to the ATM. I know you've got something on you. Now tell me where-"

"I don't have anything," Greg sobbed pitifully, his cheek now so swollen than he was blind in his right eye, "I just checked my balance, I do it every week, I swear."

"No one does that. Now, where is it, in your boot?"

"I told you, that was all I have." It was a fifty, why didn't he just leave him alone, leave him to crawl into the gutter and die.

"Don't," He felt something, his jaws being forced apart, "lie to me." Metal. He tasted metal. Oh god.

Then, a voice. The taste was gone, his jaw clamped shut involuntarily. He saw the gun, an outstretched arm, pointed at some else. The trigger was squeezed; a brilliant fiery tulip blossomed from the barrel, flinging the slide back. Then, the gun split in half, along with the arm that held it; a sword, pinning the gunman to the dirty brick wall.

The beginnings of a scream escaped his lips, cut short by a Hira Shuriken, a throwing star, which bit deep into his neck, severing his carotid artery.

It gave Greg a grim satisfaction, of sorts, to see the man die painfully, to watch his blood seep from the wound in his neck, coalesce on one of the sharpened tips of the thin metal plate that had ended him, drip steadily onto his own grimy boot.

Then, out of the shadows, a figure stepped, clad in darkness itself. He pulled on the sword gently, runes on the blade glowing blue as it slid free of the cadaver's extended arm with a nauseating _schlock_. The blood evaporated quickly, moonlight shining on the perfectly thin, flat mirror.

The man turned towards him, his face perfectly hidden by a featureless mask, any possible detail obscured by the night. There was something about the mask though, something that made it seem evil, malicious, despite the fact that it hid the identity of his saviour.

The eye. It was missing an eye. Nothing existed where it should have, just light. Dull, crimson light, burning into his eyes, into his retinas. Into his mind.

Then, it was gone. He was lying on a stretcher, paramedics standing over him, asking all kinds of pointless, irrelevant questions.

He saw police officers taking photos of the body, camera flashes reflected by the pooled blood, tainted red.

Then, there was morphine, and the inevitable sleep that followed. If those eyes, haunted, broken by the events of that night, had remained open just a second longer, they would have beheld something else. An observer, a teenage girl, enshrouded in a cloak fashioned from the dusk, face hidden beneath hood of shadow.

Raven was not shocked by the brutality of the act she had just witnessed, nor by the skill of the man who had killed the thug. She saw brutality every time she closed her eyes, every time she meditated, she met the potential for death, horror, cruelty her father could cause. He had caused. Skill was something that came naturally to some, something that was learned by many.

She was shocked, however, by who this assassin was. By who she thought he was.

"Slade…?"

"No." A voice, malevolent, full of rage, hatred, yet as calm as the stuffy, midsummer air that plagued her. A voice in her ear.

Raven turned, greeted at first by darkness, empty, blank.

"Up here." Her hood slid back as she looked upwards, revealing her violet hair, her chakra, resting at the centre of her forehead, portal to her soul.

There was the assassin, face hidden beneath mask of steel, flesh beneath cloak of shadow. Though she was prepared to fight him, if she had to, something told her that he hadn't come for her. That he hadn't come for anyone.

"Who are you?" The figured laughed at her question, gazing into the bruised clouds that hung above as he did. Raven felt tempted to use this chance to attack, or flee, but the rational part of her knew that doing so would merely draw his ire.

No. She activated the locator she had on her, hoping that Cyborg or Robin would be able to trace her signal, quickly.

"I am but a shadow; from the darkness I strike, committed to destroying that which created me. I have no purpose other than this."

Deluded by some grand idea of justice. Perfect. Perhaps if she could probe him, sense what he was feeling, or thinking… no, a brick wall. But that was impossible; even the strongest of mental shielding, left traces, allowed wisps of what flowed within the mind beneath to be detected. Disconcerting.

"Shadows shift and glide and seethe, offering no glimpses of their intention. Your intention, Raven, is to entrap me, with the aid of your allies. But know that as powerful as a Titan is, not even a God can cage a shadow." He jumped from his vantage point, landed beside her, catapulted himself over the railings, hurtling to the ground far below.

Raven exhaled deeply, lowered her hood back over her forehead. His words hadn't offered an explanation as to how he did it, but at least now she knew that she couldn't read him. She hoped she wouldn't have to, that they would never cross paths again. It was what she had seen him do that disturbed her so. There was something strange, deeply unsettling, about him, the way he behaved, the way he spoke. Even the way he stood was… was… simply not right.

Then came the wind, her cloak fluttering one moment in a gentle breeze, nearly torn from her shoulders the next, a howling gale knocking her body this way and that. That's when she noticed a shadow, leaping across the rooftops, away from her, away from the tower.

Again, she felt breath against her ear, strained, as though through the fabric of her cloak, yet confident, suave, just as his had been.

"Very soon this city will be consumed by shadow, it's citizens cleansed of the evil and vice that so freely infects their very souls. Tell Dick to join us, rejoice where his mentor did not. Tell him that there will be consequences for failure to cooperate."

He knew who they were? She pivoted as fast as she could but there were no shadows, there was no darkness. Only gleaming white metal, and scruffy green fur. Cyborg. Beast Boy.

"Sorry 'bout the delay, Rae, but-" Cyborg never got to finish this sentence, his words were muffled as he and Beast Boy were enveloped by and all-consuming hug. Jeez, whatever she had seen must've been terrible, to have this effect.

None of the gathered three noticed the shadowy figure watching them, taking in their every movement. Then he was gone again, only vile darkness in his place.

* * *

My mind presents...

**Chaos**

A _Teen Titans _story

Written by Kieren P. McGovern (AKA Untractable Evocation, or Loki, or Fedaykin Guard).

With thanks to Corey W. Smith (Cylor) for everything he's done to help, which, trust me, is a lot.

The Teen Titans universe and all characters depicted therein, apart from those of my own creation, are the intellectual property of DC comics and Time Warner productions. The (original) characters and situations depicted within this fanfiction are MY intellectual property, and use of these characters without my expressed permission will result in serious action.


	2. Darkness

"C'mon, Robin, this is ridiculous." I wasn't complainin', either. It was ridiculous, tryin' to catch the guy Raven had seen.

He was fast. Really fast. Even Star was having trouble stayin' with him, an' that was saying somethin'. After you added that to the fact that he was basically sensor-invisible, it was difficult keepin' up with him, t' say the least.

"This guy is a murderer, Cyborg; we can't give up." Though he hadn't been on the best of terms with Batman the last time they met, Dick Grayson, or Robin, still shared many of his old mentor's ideals, justice bein' one of them.

An' he was as stubborn as a mule, t' boot.

"How're we supposed to catch him if we can't reach him, or see him?" That was the one glaringly obvious flaw in Robin's plan. But, yeah, the guy wouldn't give it up for anything. Not 'til he had the perp.

A falcon swooped from the purple sky above, green feathers circling overhead. Beast Boy, or Garfield, if you were into the whole first name thin'. To me, though, he was BB.

"Have you found him?" Robin was cold as ice. He hadn't seen what the guy had done, none of us had, but there would be no vigilantes running around Jump City. Not on his watch.

"Not exactly." BB shook his head nervously, pointin' at the sky above him.

An' there was Star, holdin' what appeared to be a mangled umbrella. Mangled wasn't even that accurate a descriptor, seein' as it was basically crumpled like so much paper.

"Robin, this is a glider, not a criminal," she landed next to BB, who had by now transformed back into his normal, impish self, "but still, it would make an enjoyable kite, yes?"

"No." Robin was mad. Really mad. Not that it was hard t' tell or nothing. His face looked like he'd jus' eaten a bowl of fresh chilli.

"I'd say it makes a much more convenient distraction." Succinct as always, Raven. But she was probably right. An' by probably I mean almost definitely.

"You're right," Robin was kicking himself, not literally, but he was pretty damn close to doin' so, "I just picked up something on the police scanner. A bank robbery in progress, halted by a vigilante. Criminals are dead, officer down."

"He's killing police now? Dude, that's so not cool." BB ran his hand nervously through his hair, green, so much like the food he ate.

"Not unless they got in his way. Like he told me, if people join him, or stay out of his way, they're fine." Raven again. She has a point, but not a good one. Much as Robin hates crime, he doesn't extend that to the criminals themselves. I mean, they're people too, after all. Just bad, confused, misguided people.

"Titans, head out. Bank of Perez." Robin took only a moment give his command, then he was gone. Along with Star, BB an' Raven. Man, they sure don't wait for you t' keep up.

"So, you've finally decided to show up? How rude of you; I worried that you hadn't received my invitation." A shadow, with one eye. Or one normal eye. The other glowed, glowered, a dim red, so much like mine it was scary.

There were cops everywhere, or there had been, until we showed up. Then they got out, took their buddy with them, an' trust me, they were so leavin' so quickly they nearly forgot him. Had to remind them.

But now all that mattered was that we had the guy. Jus' about, anyway.

"Titan's, GO!" An' there was the signal, Robin dashing ahead off the rest, BB and Star not far behind. Rae hung back, just a little.

"I see my offer has been rejected. So foolish." He just stood there, even when Robin threw a birdarang right at his head. Not that he had needed to actually dodge the thing. He jus' caught it, tossed it aside, right before it blew up, too. Man, this guy had sharp reflexes.

So, what does Robin do, but hurl another birdarang. 'Cept this time the guy doesn't just throw it aside. He tosses it back.

Not that it should've been that surprisin', but it is when you're trying to dodge a whole bunch a throwing stars. They missed me, but the birdarang came outta nowhere, caught me right in the shoulder. It wouldn've been so bad, if it hadn't of exploded.

That's what it did, flung me pretty far across the street, too. Didn't hurt that much, but it fried the targeting on my sonic cannon. Not that it made too much of a difference. The suit this guy was wearing made it impossible to get a lock anyway.

But man was I angry. The thing still worked an' everything, so I blasted him. Or tried to. Did I mention how fast this guy was? 'cause I sure wasn't expecting it. He just jumped, avoided the blast by a mile, an' then pulls out this sword of his.

A katana, or somethin' like it, anyway. I didn't actually get that much of a look at it, seein' he swung it so fast it was there one minute, an' the next I'm missin' an arm. I guess it's a good thin' it was missin' in the first place.

Well, even though I was down a gun, I still wasn't givin' up that easily. I threw a punch, clobbered him good. Or the air where he had been, anyway. 'Cause he wasn't there anymore. I jus' heard a thump, saw BB land next to me, a crumpled heap.

I turned, tried to see where this guy was now. Got a fairly good view of him knockin' Starfire into a wall, too. Thought she would've survived pretty much unharmed, but when she got back up she had a pretty bad nosebleed.

That got Robin mad. Angrier than he was to start with, an' that was saying something major.

"Raven, will you be helping us today?" Huh. Sarcasm wasn't anythin' he used in casual conversation, either.

She looked pretty out of it, too. Raven, I mean. Seemed like she was almost… well, not afraid, but… wary.

"What is it Rae?" Man, if she was like this, then there mus've be somethin' she wasn't tellin' us. I thought maybe I'd get her to tell, before we got creamed.

"There's something about him, something strange. I can't read him, but even Einstein over there," she extended her index finger toward BB, who was jus' pickin' himself up, "should know a normal human could never do that to Starfire."

"So, a meta-human, eh?" If I could've cracked my knuckles, I would've, but, yeah, I was a little short on them. An' arms. It was good an' bad, since it'd make the fight that much harder, but now I wouldn't have t' go as easy on him as I would've otherwise.

"I'm glad to see you finally figured out what has been staring you in the face for the past ten minutes." One thing I had to admit 'bout the guy is that he knew how to fight. Managing to get that sarcastic comment out, while BEATING Robin in unarmed combat… well, he was somethin'.

Seems like Raven decided to help after all, seein' as she started chanting that mantra of hers.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos…"

Strange thing is, the guy wasn't even concerned. If anythin' I'd say it actually made him happy to see this.

"Well, friend Raven, it gladdens my heart to see you summon the righteous fury, as friend Starfire seems incapable of doing so." A perfect, mockin' impersonation of Star, who was having a little trouble pickin' herself up. If it had've been a joke, I might've laughed. What came next wasn't so funny, though.

"But perhaps you shouldn't use such fury. Losing control might cause another incident, like the one on your sixteenth birthday." This stopped Raven dead in her tracks, an' I mean fast.

"What?" Her voice wasn't quite normal, there was so much… emotion.

"How does it feel? Knowing that you held yourself back for your entire life, remaining void, emotionless, where you should have been happy or sad or angry, to protect the people that stood all around you, when they didn't deserve to be saved from what was coming."

"What are you talking about?" This time it was Robin, an' now he was more confused than anythin'.

"Who is more accurate than what. I speak of Trigon."

"You know-?" Raven again, tryin' to sound unfazed but doin' a pretty lousy job of it.

"Of course I know. Your father had dominion over the entire Earth, but the Earth only. Not every part of this Earth is terrestrial in origin. That is all that saved me."

"So….. anyone else get that?" BB looked as though he'd jus' been forced to sit through a speech on general relativity. Not that he's slow or anythin', despite what Raven may attest; Even I had trouble understandin'.

"What I just told you is unimportant. What is, however, is this; your luck is very quickly wearing thin. Until now, your pathetic attempts to stop me have been amusing, sufficiently so that I am feeling charitable. Leave now, and you will do so with your lives intact."

Well, to say that the mood darkened at this point would've been pretty accurate, if only 'cause what little light had remained simply up an' vanished.

Of course, then Robin had to go an' do his little spiel about how virtuous the Titan's were, an' how we never surrendered, ' specially not to murderers. Then this other guy, the villain, I 'spose he'd be called, if this were a cartoon, simply turns away from us an' says:

"I'm sorry that you disagree with me. The last man who did so would attest to the folly of it, but unfortunately he finds himself quite decapitated."

The air around us grew murky, dense, like some sort of living shadow. Then the wind picked up, started buffeting me, an' everyone else. Like nature itself was turning against us. I'd be lyin' if I didn't admit that I was pretty freaked out by this point.

"You don't scare me." Robin was starting to sound about as arrogant as this guy did.

"I should." That's all that he said, but it made me feel like somethin' was going to happen. Somethin' none of us would like. I think all of us got that feelin' about the time he started hurling bolts of shadow at us. An' man, did they hurt. Not physically, not that much, anyway.

It was more than that… once they touched you, sunk in, all these horrible thoughts an' emotions, things you bottled away deep inside so you'd never feel 'em again, began welling to the surface. It felt like I was hit by a train, one that backs over you again an' then kicks you in the nuts. I don't even think I got the worst of it.

Robin jus' fell to his knees, retching. Thank god he was doin' it dryly, since I don't envy the guy that's gotta clean that up.

BB stopped in his tracks, a Sabre-toothed tiger, went belly-up like a dead fish. Star, she fell right outta the sky, an' by fell I mean… well, it's probably more accurate to say that she crashed into the pavement an' blew a crater at least thirty feet across.

Raven… it was horrible to watch. First up, she don't know what hit her, just hovered there starin' into nothin'. An' then she started reeling around in the air, flailin' about like she was getting' stuck by a hot iron.

Then she grabs her head, screamin'… not any human scream, either. 'Cause then, she jus' stops movin' an' looks up. 'Cept now she's got more than two eyes , an' I can tell you, that's not anythin' you want to see.

Her cloak, it becomes like a part of her, an' all these scary tentacles an' stuff start sproutin' out… but instead of goin' at him, they start attackin' her, grabbin' her arms an' legs, wrappin' her up in her own cloak 'til I couldn't see her skin anymore.

All the while, she's in there kickin' an' punchin' an' bouncin' around from the inside, like a bunch of cats in a sack.

An' then it stops, bursts open, Raven was back with us again. But she was lookin' a helluva lot worse for it. She jus' turns her head toward me, moves her lips.

"If I stay… sorry…" Then she's gone, up an' teleported away. I don't blame her for it. If she stayed, got hit again by whatever the hell he threw at us… she nearly lost total control after one hit, jus' about killed herself, too.

It might've looked cowardly, but it was smart. Sometimes, retreat is better than defeat. 'Specially if you're a half-demon who could destroy the planet if you ever lost control of your power, even once.

"Robin, man, we gotta get out of here!" He knew I was right, too. BB, Star, both lookin' like they aren't goin' to be doin' anthin' for a while, me, doin' the best I could with one arm an' fried targetin'.Then there's Robin, fightin' a fight he knew he couldn't win, stubbornly battlin' on, because it felt like the right thin' to do, when anyone coulda told him it was jus' the opposite.

"It's too late for that, too late for you. The choice was made by you alone, a choice you must abide."

Then, he pulls this grenade from his bandolier, an' tosses it at me. Like one off those stickies from Halo, 'cause once it got on me, it didn't wanna let go. An' then it went off, an' whaddaya know? I'm out cold.

* * *

_Pathetic. Worthless. The heroes of Jump City, and they can't even defend themselves. No wonder vice is beginning to gain a foothold within the city. Father was right. If I do not guide the other shadows to this place, then soon it will become worse than Gotham._

Another birdarang flew at Vance Freeman, cutting wildly through the air like a dagger. Brushed aside by a gloved hand, it spun into a wall.

"Determined as always, Robin. Yet you fail to realise that you should have run when you had the chance." He dodged a punch thrown by the younger, knocked him, gasping, to the ground with an elbow to the sternum.

"Don't get up." A warning, followed by a sharp kick to the torso when compliance was not met. Jarring agony, two broken ribs. Sharp, laboured breaths escaped Robin's lips as he tried to get up. The best he could do was prop himself up against a wall, staring at each of his fallen allies, friends, in turn.

"Who…" This single word was all he could manage, barely an excuse for a sentence.

"Who am I?" an amused sigh, "I am all that you have fought for, that which you hold dear. I am justice, blind and true, unbridled by ideals that should not exist. I am a product of your own creation, dear Robin."

"How can that be? I've never even met you before!"

"Once, long ago, you failed in your duty as protector. Perhaps if you had not, then I would not be what I am today," he looked to the sky, as though trying to remember a time long forgotten, "now I am a shadow, nothing more, destined to strike down all who dream of fell deeds."

"Criminals do not deserve to die simply because of what they do." It made Robin feel sick, the thought that he was completely at the mercy of this madman. Along with the fact that he could feel his ribs floating around inside of him, shifting with every tiny movement, every moment of speech.

"And yet their victims deserve to die, simply because they were in the wrong place in the wrong time? Look around you, at what you have become. Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven. Once you were strong, powerful. Now you are nothing more than targets for the affections of your misguided worshippers."

A blade slid free of its scabbard, runes glowing dull blue, just barely visible in the unnatural darkness. "Nothing more than targets for my sword."

Robin knew what would happen next, knew that there was nothing he could do to save his friends, nothing at all. Unless he bargained. He could see them, unconscious upon the ground, his friends… his family. He could not bear to watch them die this way.

"Take… take my life in exchange for theirs."

These words surprised Vance. The nobility of them.

"You would sacrifice yourself to ensure they were spared?"

"I see no other choice."

For a brief moment, Vance found himself looking upon the Titan who lay broken at his feet with newfound respect.

"Very well. Your death will be painless, if that is the only condolence I can offer you."

Some condolence. There was no life flashing before his eyes, no revelation, nothing. No comfort as the faceless executioner lifted his sword.

Then, a starbolt caught him in the side. It was weak, feeble, barely even felt. He turned, pinned Robin to the wall with a Shuriken. Not that he was going anywhere, but those who were prepared were those who survived.

Starfire, hanging over the lip of the crater she had blasted, barely conscious, blood flowing from her nose. She was crying, tears peeling gently from the corners of her eyes, only to evaporate on her hot Tameranean skin. Tears of grief, frustration, fury, at what she could only describe as having her soul violated in the worst way possible.

Fear, for what would become of her friends, of Robin.

"Please, leave Robin." Miserable was the single word Vance could find to describe her. He had seen her previously, flying about the city as he watched from the shadows, so joyful. Now she was earthbound, barely able to even summon a wretched starbolt.

"Please…," she reached up, arm stretched towards him. He remained just out of reach, aware that he should not underestimate her strength, or her intelligence, "you have beaten us, and we are defeated. If you kill us, even if you kill Robin only, then you are no better than Slade. Then you are a monster."

Something about that last sentence struck a chord deep inside of him, brought something to the surface, something he hadn't remembered in a long time, something he didn't want to remember.

_"You- you're a monster, get away from- argggh." Brains, splattered on the wall, splattered on the ground, squish, squish, brains go squish._

"No. I'm not a monster. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. True strength comes from willingness to do the unthinkable," he strode back to Robin, lifted his sword over his head, and… sheathed it. "Which is why I'm not going to kill you, Dick Grayson. Why I'm not going to kill any off you."

Then, he leapt, up, onto the roof, into the darkness. He had to defeat them, he was meant to kill all who stood in his way. But he would not become him. Not the one who had made him.

* * *

My mind presents...

**Chaos**

A _Teen Titans _story

Written by Kieren P. McGovern (AKA Untractable Evocation, or Loki, or Fedaykin Guard).

With thanks to Corey W. Smith (Cylor) for everything he's done to help, which, trust me, is a lot.

The Teen Titans universe and all characters depicted therein, apart from those of my own creation, are the intellectual property of DC comics and Time Warner productions. The (original) characters and situations depicted within this fanfiction are MY intellectual property, and use of these characters without my expressed permission will result in serious action.


	3. Revelation

**Author's Note: **Yep, some background for Vance. Find out what makes him tick.

I really wanted to try and evoke some sympathy for this character, where people would normally flat out hate him by now. I bet you did, and you're feeling pretty guilty right about now, aren't you?

_

* * *

_

_They are worthless._

_They are pathetic._

_They are all that stand in our way._

_And so they must be crushed._

A swipe of his blade, and a solid steel effigy of Cyborg split in half. Another cut, this time it was Raven and Beast Boy that fell apart. Robin, decapitated in one fell swoop.

Now, it was Starfire's turn. The other. A single slash, and she would be gone, as dead as the earth she would be buried in. But he couldn't do it. He couldn't kill her before, and now he couldn't even bring himself to harm a statue of her.

What was it, about this Tameranean, that so weakened his resolve. What was it about Starfire that made him unable to touch her, or even bear to see her in pain?

It was not her beauty. That was an illusion. Had he been blindfolded, then she would be no more beautiful than a hunk of coal.

It was more than that… something horrible, that he could no longer remember. Not quite. With an angry sigh, he sheathed his blade. He was a warrior. He had killed countless people. No… not people.

Monsters. He was making the world a better place.

It was his job, a task he must complete, before man succeeded in destroying himself, not with war or weapons, but through decadence. Vice.

Drugs, prostitutes, gambling. Even Jump City had felt the sting of these things in recent times, and he knew that even the Titan's could see that.

Meditation. That was one method of finding oneself, collecting your thought and achieving enlightenment. He had heard that Raven used meditative trance as a method of relaxation. He could imagine it, the spawn of a demon, a creature with the power to destroy the entire planet, maybe even the entire universe, sitting in the lotus position, as still as a rock.

He preferred, however, to simply think as he practiced his swordsmanship. Meditation was wonderful, when you had the time for it. Time was not something that assassins tended to have much of.

_Sword be damned, _he threw both his blades to the ground with a clatter. He had no idea why the Japanese held such respect for them. They were objects, useful while they served their purpose, but otherwise a burden.

He also realised that he had fought the Titan's using only one of his two blades. He had still defeated them. _Perhaps, _his mouth opened and closed silently_, I should have used both._ He remembered plenty of times during their battle where he could have stayed their tongues. Permanently.

He threw a switch, and another set of targets appeared, live fire droids. Thoughtfully provided by a mutual fiend. Wilson was useful, so long as he served his purpose. He had been more than willing to comply with Vance's wishes, once he learned that he would destroy the Titan's for him.

Cyborg, or an accurate enough approximation of him, fired a sonic blast at Vance's head. He raised his arm, knocked it aside as though it were a strand of spaghetti. _These powers really do come in handy, after all._

Robo-Raven began her chant, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," only to have her head knocked off with a flying kick. Using the momentum this provided, he lunged at Robin. Just as expected, the droid prepared a counter lunge, ready to knock him out of the sky.

But he wasn't going after him. Not directly. Vance hit the ground, rolled, and sent a brutally powerful kick into the groin. He wasn't above using low blows to win a fight.

Honour was an outdated belief.

But, he remembered… it was something he too had believed in, once. _Who am I? Who did I use to be?_ Beast Bot ran at him, the hologram around him indicating that he was a mighty steer.

With a simple spin, he had dodged the charge and felled the beast. Another movement, a snap of the neck, and he was dispatched.

Three down.

_"Three down, man, if you hadn't of tagged me, I would've won."_

What?

Cyborg jumped at him, great arms extended.

_"You should have been watching. Speaking of which, these guy's have been following us for a while now, haven't they?"_

Vance caved the right side of his head in with a bolt of shadow, then sliced it clean off with another.

_"Claire, Hannah, stick closer to us."_

Now only Starfire remained. Slade had programmed her very well, too. As she would have done in any similar situation, she let out a cry of rage and flew right at him, eyes blazing, thousands of starbolts pummelling him, as though he were standing in a meteor storm.

_"Hey, you, keep walking."_

_"Why should I? My associates and I thought it would be nice to play a little game. You win, and you get to live."_

Starbolts absorbed by the veil of shadow that surround Vance, the Starfire doppelganger started throwing incredibly brutal punches at him. One missed, and blew a three-foot hole in the wall behind him.

_'Fuck, we're in trouble.'_

_"Damn right. First rule of the game, you give us everything you've got on you and," there was a thud as Jack David threw his wallet to the ground. Vance did the same, followed shortly by Claire and Hannah._

_"What gives? There's barely enough in here to buy a tank of petrol"' Now one of the three men that held them hostage produced a gun._

A spin-kick. Vance changed stances, and used Starfire's own prodigious strength against her, hurling her bodily into another wall.

"_Keep cool man. You must've seen us come out of __Vinachi's__? We had to pay through the nose to even get a reservation." It had been Claire's twenty-first birthday. Right now, Vance regretted not accepting the ride offer he had been given._

_"What else have you got? __Anything valuable?"__ He nodded towards Hannah, who promptly remover her earrings and gave them to him._

_Rather than accepting the jewellery and leaving, he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, until she was practically kissing him. _

_"Oh, I didn't mean that, sweetheart." _

Vance threw punch after punch into Starfire's body, knocking back every attempt she made to counter-attack. A kick, and again she flew into the wall, only this time, a distinct snap echoed throughout the chamber. He did not let his guard down.

A wounded animal was infinitely more dangerous than even a cornered one.

_But there was Robin! Yes, one of the Teen Titans. He could save them, all of them. He had seen him on the news, seen him jump into the middle of a whole street gang and come out on top._

_But something was wrong. He was ignoring them; no, he was mocking them. For every punch they took, he was flung back, as though he were being beaten thoroughly by a spectral opponent._

_"You- you're a monster, get away from- __argggh__." Brains, splattered on the wall, splattered on the ground, squish, squish, brains go squish._

_Jack was __dead,__ and this bastard didn't even care. He was too busy laughing at them from his vantage point._

_Vance swore, then and there, that he would have revenge on the people that were responsible for Jack. The only friend he had ever had, lying in a stale grey pool of his own brains._

_He would kill these people. He would kill them all. A fate that not even Robin could escape._

_"Struggle all you want, it just makes it more fun. Don't worry about your friend," the thug laughed at Jack's mutilated corpse as he pulled Hannah's top off, "I think it actually makes an improvement to his appearance."_

_Hannah wasn't struggling anymore. She was too busy crying. Pleading, sobbing so pitifully that it made even Vance sick, she was begging, telling Jack to get up and stop pretending._

_Vance had to protect her, do something. She was Jack's girlfriend, he had to __– then__ he remembered. He had gone diving that morning, and he had forgotten to unstrap the Bowie Knife from his leg._

_He lunged forwards, and, as expected, was knocked to the ground. Giving him the opportunity to pull the knife free and plunge it through the chest of the nearest of the three monsters. They weren't human._

"You'll pay for that!" Vance punched Starfire right in the head, knocking her to the ground.

_Vance reeled as he was punched to the ground. He slashed with the knife, cut off fingers, and the slashed again, cutting something vital enough to spray blood all over him._

_He was going berserk, just like Unit 01 on that Evangelion show he loved. He bought the knife down again, and just about clean sheared the arm off. The gun it held fell uselessly to his side. He released Hannah, and ran._

_She immediately dove to Jack's side, cradling his empty head against her breast. Vance would avenge him. That was one comfort he could give them all._

_Then, a stranger appeared from the shadow, or was it the shadow coming to him?_

_"Who are you?" He demanded__ his knife extended menacingly towards the figure._

_"I? I am nothing. I am a shadow. I," he held up the corpse of the third and final attacker, "am salvation." Rather than let Vance interrogate him further, he simply continued. "This attack was unprovoked, and your friend died because of it. The fabled Teen Titans, supposed protectors of this city, proved themselves unworthy of their title. You had to watch your friend die. You did not deserve that."_

_Damn straight, but… even now, the truth of the situation, the fact that he would never see his friend, his brother, alive again, began to sink in. __Vance fell to his knees, dropped his knife, and began to sob, great round tears pooling from the corners of his blue eyes._

_The figure took a step forwards, and placed his hand on Vance's shoulder. "Join us. Join the League of Shadows, and my master will give you the means to avenge your friend. Avenge the world."_

_Vance nodded, despite the horrified pleas of both Claire and Hannah. A gas canister fell to the ground, and when it cleared, only they remained, cradling Jack's broken body in their arms._

That was why he couldn't hurt Starfire. She was Claire. She was Hannah. She was no more. Nothing would stand in his way any longer. Not a wretched Tameranean, not even his friends.

"Jack," Vance caught Starfire by the neck and smashed her through four solid feet of concrete. There was a dull slash, and her head fell from her shoulders, "will see his revenge."

* * *

My mind presents...

**Chaos**

A _Teen Titans _story

Written by Kieren P. McGovern (AKA Untractable Evocation, or Loki, or Fedaykin Guard).

With thanks to Corey W. Smith (Cylor) for everything he's done to help, which, trust me, is a lot.

The Teen Titans universe and all characters depicted therein, apart from those of my own creation, are the intellectual property of DC comics and Time Warner productions. The (original) characters and situations depicted within this fanfiction are MY intellectual property, and use of these characters without my expressed permission will result in serious action.


End file.
